March 16, 2012 – On the eve of the "Keep Fishermen Fishing" rally in Washington, the Pew Environment Group urges Congress not to pass the flexibility bills at the center of the rally's demands.
Thirty-six years after enactment of the law that is now known as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), we are turning a corner on ending overfishing (taking fish faster than they can reproduce) and rebuilding our nation’s valuable fish populations. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) reports that 23 depleted stocks have been rebuilt since 2000. In addition, it has estimated that fully rebuilt U.S. fish populations would generate $216 billion in annual sales impacts and support 2.5 million full- and part-time U.S. jobs in commercial and recreational fisheries.
So-called flexibility bills—including H.R. 1646, the “American Angler Preservation Act”; H.R. 3061, the “Flexibility and Access in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2011”; and S. 632, the “Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2011”—would undermine the bipartisan conservation provisions of the MSA by creating loopholes that could extend timelines indefinitely for rebuilding depleted fish populations. Doing so would raise fishing pressure on depleted populations while increasing the difficulty and cost of their recovery. These bills also would allow fishery managers to put short-term gains for a few ahead of the nation’s investment in healthy fish populations, which provide income and jobs for many.
Read the complete release from PEW Environment.